FerryWizard is entirely derived from solving user needs. Only things that users have requested have made this possible. Without someone saying “Gosh, it’s not very friendly — have you considered making the output more readable?” I would never have built the current (instantly legible) map-based display.

That’s a long-winded way to say: I deeply value your inputs. User feedback drives innovation, without which the app doesn’t ever improve.

I love getting feedback from people, especially if you have great new ideas. I’m a builder: I fundamentally thrive on building something that people are delighted with. If you have an idea, it’s entirely possible that your idea will make the app better for everyone, not just you.

How to Request a Feature

1. Be Clear and Specific:

• Describe your idea and the problem it solves.

I love new ideas, but if they’re not already in my head, I’m probably missing some context. I get a lot of genuinely vague feedback, but much of it isn’t well-considered. Help me understand the specific problem it will solve in your own life.

• Include details about how you imagine the feature working.

To really make it easy for me to build your idea, it’s most helpful to understand what you’d want it to look like. Is there a button, or a badge, or a new display with some kind of graph? Bring me a napkin-sketch or a picture of your white-board with a hand-drawn idea and I’m in my happy place.

2. Explain the Value:

• Why is this feature important to you? If you can drive home the value of the proposed new capability, it helps me prioritize what matters.

• How would it improve your experience or benefit other users? I’m especially excited about ideas that make it better for more than just a few of us. Sure, it’s good if it solves one person’s problem, but if can make things better for a whole bunch of people, that makes for a far more intriguing development path.

3. Be Polite and Constructive:

• It’s sad that I even have to say this. Most of the FerryWizard user base is really spectacular. I’ve gotten so much encouragement from complete strangers spurring me on to build this thing. But some users are intent on being entirely awful.

• The reality is that this product has a single developer who is chief software architect, development pipeline engineer, testing and quality assurance team, front end design, back end development, database administrator, chief marketing officer, content generation team, and so on. Worse, I have a full-time job, and this isn’t it — FerryWizard survives only because users provide encouragement that it’s valuable for them.

• So just know: if you choose to reach out, I am grateful for those of you (the vast majority) who reach out with understanding and compassion, while asking for new capability.

What Happens Next

As capability ideas come in, I prioritize them based on feasibility, alignment with the app’s goals, user impact, and politeness of request. It’s worth understanding that all ideas are welcome, and I think carefully about every single one, but I don’t have time to build all of them.

A Note on Prioritization

• It’s worth apologizing for the realities: I can’t build everything. Some of the features — sometimes the really incredible ones — are just beyond what I have time to implement.

• It’s also worth mentioning that none of this is free for me to do — there’s server expenses, API subscriptions, developer subscriptions for various required resources, and so on. So if this is to continue, it’s important to prioritize work that people will be interested in paying for. As such, features suggested by paying customers, or by people who strongly believe that a feature will attract paying customers, are significantly more likely to end up being implemented.

Conclusion

I’m infinitely grateful to my community of users. You people are awesome. This wouldn’t exist without your support.

I’d like to continue working on this, and to continue solving the problems that you, the user, face every day when you’re trying to figure out how to get to where you’re going.

So I’ll close with this: have an idea? Let me know! I’d love to hear from you.